1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a valve. More particularly to the art of flow control diverter valves used to divert or mix bulk and particulate material fluids flowing through a conduit.
2. Prior Art
Batch processing and mixing of powdered and bulk solid ingredients in manufacturing plants conventionally involve the flow of such materials through a conduit system for mixing, drying, and final discharge for packaging. The mixing of the different granular and powdered bulk materials to achieve the desired end product involves a number of steps.
Generally, to achieve the desired mix and consistency of the end product to be shipped requires mixing numerous ingredients of varying consistency from fine powder to large granules. Mixing of such materials is generally required to achieve desired end products such as foodstuffs, animal feeds, food additives, cement, grains, fertilizers and many other products using multiple ingredients needing mixing to achieve the resulting desired end product.
Conduit systems using compressed air and gravity feed are conventionally used to create a flow of raw materials through a system. The flow of materials is diverted at differing points to be dried, ground, humidified, and mixed with other raw materials also flowing through the conduit system. The primary conventional manner in which the materials flowing through the conduit system are mixed and routed to be processed to be finished product is by the use of diverter valve assemblies having diverter valve blades therein.
Conventional diverter valve assemblies widely used in the bulk engineering industry generally are in an inverted "Y" configuration. One round conduit forms the inlet leg the top of the inverted "Y" shaped valve assembly and feeds the material flow into a center chamber. Two round outlet conduits form the exit legs of the inverted "Y" shaped valve assembly and also converge into the rectangular or box shaped center chamber in a sealed relationship.
Inside the box shaped center chamber a rectangular diverter blade of metal or rubber is situated. This diverter blade is actuated by connection to a conventional external switching apparatus and is used to actuate the valve blade and divert the flow of material entering the box shaped chamber from the inlet leg to one of the two exit legs while concurrently sealing the flow from entering the other exit leg connected to the box shaped center chamber.
The valve blade in conventional systems is rectangular shaped to cooperate with the inside walls of the box shaped center chamber in a sealing relationship when activated to divert the material flow. Generally a replaceable seal is required about the perimeter of the rectangular valve blade to insure a good seal with the inside walls of the box shaped center chamber. Depending on the construction of the center chamber, stops positioned about the inside wall of the center chamber may also be used to aid in locating the valve blade in the correct diverting position and to aid the valve blade in maintaining that position when subjected to heavy pressure by the flowing material inside the conduits and box chamber. A number of continual problems however exist with this configuration of a diverter valve assembly.
First, the flat walls of the box like rectangular center chamber, unlike the circular walls of the communicating conduits, are easily dented. Consequently, the valve blade must be maintained in a loose sealing relationship with the inside walls of the box shaped center chamber. This is because an inwardly dented wall in the center chamber will jam the valve blade from correctly rotating to the required positions to accurately divert material flowing through the chamber. As such, conventional diverter valve blades are formed in a loose relationship with the inside walls of the center chamber of the diversion valve assembly and a rubber seal is affixed to the perimeter of the valve blade to maintain a reasonable seal. This seal is in need of constant inspection and replacement to insure that leaks do not develop in the seal which would allow improper mixtures to occur from bypassing material through the leaks.
Additionally, the loose working relationship with the diverter valve blade and interior walls of the box shaped center chamber can also require the need for stops to be placed in the center chamber to insure the diverter valve will not over rotate under pressure from the bulk material flowing in the conduit and break or allow the flow to reach the exit conduit intended to be sealed. Such stops however can cause flow interruptions in the exit conduit not blocked or if the stops are inserted through the side walls of the box shaped center chamber when needed and removed when not needed, holes in the side wall to accommodate the selectively insertable stops can cause leakage and flow problems.
As is obvious, leaks of material into the wrong or blocked exit conduit can cause serious problems with the end product and can result in the need to destroy the end product is contaminated by leaking material flow. Additionally, the constant need to inspect and change seals, and the constant danger of the flat sides of the box shaped center chamber being dented and jamming the valve blade cause increased production and maintenance costs.
A further problem encountered with conventional diverter valve assemblies is that of occupied space. Generally, the fluidized conduits entering and leaving the box like center chamber when added to the required area for the chamber itself, takes up extra space in the linear conduit system due to the need for adapters to take the conduit from round to square and back to round. In many factories and offices built in years past, such diverter valve assemblies have been place in hard to reach areas in between floors and replacement of worn valve assemblies is a vexing problem the physical size does not accommodate easy removal and replacement in tight quarters. It is an all to common requirement to remove sections of the floor of manufacturing plants replacing such valve assemblies in order to achieve sufficient space to remove the old valve assembly and insert a replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,014 (Lie) teaches a round Y shaped multiway valve assembly however it is constructed of multiple pieces which would be expensive to manufacture and it requires stops for the diverter blade. Further, because of the differing dimensions in different plants using a fluid conduit system to process materials Lie's tight manufacturing tolerances and resulting method of manufacture would preclude making small batches or custom sized valves due to economics.
As such, there exists a need for an easily and inexpensively manufactured apparatus, which can be easily customized for size requirements of differing bulk processing batch processing systems which use a particulate fluid flow through a conduit system to mix and process the solids flowing therethrough or for air conditioning and heating systems for diverting air flow. An additional need exists for such a device that needs little or no adjustments to accomplish this task. A further requirement needed for such a device is not easily damaged about its exterior body and which does not require stops or locators to position the diverter valve blade in a sealing relationship with the intended outlet to be sealed. Finally, such a device should have the additional benefit of occupying less area than conventionally used diverter valve assemblies allowing for the easy retrofit and replacement of conventional diverter valves in tight area constraints.